US senators unveil bill to prevent export monopolies after Huawei showdown

By Alexandra Alper

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A bipartisan duo of U.S. senators unveiled a bill on Wednesday that directs the Commerce Department to create a level playing field when issuing export licenses and not make decisions that benefit one U.S. company over another.

The legislation, drafted by Democrat Elizabeth Warren and Republican Rick Scott, comes after the Commerce Department drew fire for granting licenses to Intel and Qualcomm to sell chips to Huawei without approving similar sales to the heavily sanctioned Chinese telecom giant by rivals MediaTek and AMD.

The Biden administration eventually revoked Intel and Qualcomm’s licenses last year, but concerns have festered about the Commerce Department’s ability to create an unfair playing field among U.S. competitors vying to maintai